Clay Sculpting with Cookie and Dinos
Have you seen the adorable clay sculpted dinosaurs created by Cookie and Dinos? She creates these beautiful and adorable dinosaurs that fit in the palm of your hand and make you smile. :). We had the great opportunity to interview Cookie and share a number of her gorgeous pictures below as well as learn more about this wonderful creative soul. :).
By Michele of VAMICreations and Cookie of Cookie and Dinos
You can find her amazing work such as the ones below in her Etsy Shop. Read on for more about Cookies and Dinos!
How did you start Cookie and Dinos?
I started creating dinosaurs in 2012 to cheer everyone up when I lost both my Grandparents to cancer. I thought since both of them love the Jurassic Park movies, I would create a dinosaur for every family member. So that they would have something special to look at to remember them by :D
What gave you the idea/inspiration?
My beautiful family gave me the inspiration to start sculpting. They knew my spirit just wasn’t as bright with the loss we had, and bought me a whole bag of clay and paint one day and said make something to cheer us all up and so that's when i started creating dinosaurs for everyone and haven’t stopped since. Not only because it brought so much joy to my family, but also because it brought the joyfulness back to me by making my family smile with my creations :D
How long has Cookie and Dinos been around?
I started Cookie And Dinos on Instagram in 2016, as a way to share joy with others :D
What is Cookie and Dinos all about?
Cookie And Dinos is all about joy and happiness! I started with the intent of making others happy with my art and hope to continue to create joy for others with every creation :D I hope to make a difference in the world with my art by raising money for my community programs. This year I’m working hard on raising money for my community food drive and hope to keep continuing through out next year too :D
How do you choose the sculptures you create?
I usually start sculpting the head and add the eyes and think to myself hmmm this looks like its gonna be a cute dragon or a silly dinosaur lol. Sometimes I even start sculpting and the face just reminds me of an animal or creature and then I just go with the flow! The best part is just having fun and enjoying it! :D I also love sculpting creatures that my followers on Instagram and Deviant Art come up with, I get hundreds of DMs bi-weekly requesting different dinosaur species or animal creatures that they draw and come up with, I try and pick a few each month and sculpt their creation and send it to them to brighten their day! These are my favorite type of creations to make :D
What has inspired you to create different sculptures?
My family, my followers and my beautiful artist friends! They are my biggest inspiration to keep pushing myself. They always support me to try and sculpt different animals or creatures, which always gives me that spark to keep trying to sculpt new creations! For example last year I really wanted to sculpt baby yoda, they were the cutest little thing ever lol :D but I didn’t think I could sculpt them, I didn’t believe in myself. But after being encouraged by my artist friends, family and followers I finally decided to sculpt baby yoda this year! And I actually had fun sculpting them :D They turned out pretty cute too lol :D
What is your favorite type of dragon to create?
My favorite would have to be Toothless or my own style dragons with angel wing type of ears,
They’re my favorite because Toothless personally reminds me of my beloved furry baby Truffles.
He was a mixed papillon doggy who had these beautiful fluffy butterfly angel ears :D He inspired me to start sculpting dragons in 2017, because I has only sculpted mostly dinosaurs :D
What would you tell a new sculptor for encouragement?
For anyone new to sculpting, I would tell them to keep creating! no matter what it is, just keep sculpting something everyday and have fun! It's ok if you think it doesn't look good because everything we do in life is a learning experience that we grow from over time. I always tell other artists just starting out that “We are like Pokemon, We keep evolving with time” Till we find our own art style. The key is to never give up and to alway surround yourself with other positive artists who are going to support you on your artist journey!
What is something you are passionate about and why?
I’m deeply passionate about helping others and brightening their day :D My passion started while growing up in Sweden, we alway helped our neighbors/town. If someone needed help building something we’d build it, if someone needed their shop run while they were sick we’d run it! It's this type of small community that grows and thrives together because you help one another, for nothing in return. Because the best gift of all was their SMILE :D , AND JOY! for helping them :D.
Since moving to the US in 2016 I started getting involved in my new community. I started out creating dinosaurs for children in children's hospitals to brighten their day and then by 2018 I opened up my Etsy Shop and started raising money with my art for different organizations in my community. And now my huge goal for this year is raising money for my community food drive! All proceeds from my art is going to it and I hope to continue it through the next year as well :D
If you had one (or several) things to share with a woman entrepreneur, what would it be? What would you encourage them about?
Have faith in yourself! Because as a woman I think we doubt our self worth sometimes and we need to remember to have courage to follow our dreams, we need to have courage to take a journey that women aren't usually expected to take. And in 2020 I believe women have much more opportunities to follow their dreams than they did before. Alway surround yourself with people who believe in you and your dream, never give up!!
What is a lesson learned for being a woman entrepreneur that you wish someone had told you when you first started?
The best advice would be, to never look at other artists or entrepreneurs as competition. Alway look at them as your ally because if they can do it so can you with hard work and dedication. Because I believe there's room for every creative beautiful mind in this world no matter what!
What is your dream for Cookie and Dinos to be (where do you see Cookie and Dinos in 5+ years)?
My dream is to continue raising money for community programs, and my biggest! dream for Cookie And Dinos is to someday build a community art center where everyone can come and be creative! A place where there are different areas for creating art because art comes in so many forms like sculpting, drawing, dancing, singing, etc. I feel like every community needs a center that is free for everyone to express themselves through art, i feel like its good for the soul and mind and that's why I hope to achieve it someday :D
If you like this, you may like:
Following what Cookie has done with her desire to volunteer and spread her joy of clay sculpting to others, we have created a list below of the food banks she has volunteered at and supported by raising money through her sculpting. If there are others that you recommend please comment below or send me an email so I can add them to the list. :)
Bread Basket which helps to feed the communities around them with free food and food under $1. They have also teamed up with Feeding America.
Feeding America goes into different communities through the USA to provide free food during the COVID-19 crisis. You can find your city on their website and they are always looking for volunteers.
What are some places that you recommend to volunteer or support? I’d love to hear from you and add to this list for locations around the world - places that you can support with sculpting (like Crafters for Kids who we had the wonderful opportunity to interview) and others as well. Take care and stay safe my friend.
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